Seattle Teachers Protest Exams

Teachers at three Seattle schools are refusing to give students district-mandated standardized exams, one of the most dramatic moves in an escalating fight nationwide over using test scores to evaluate teachers and schools.

The Seattle boycott, which began in one of the schools and spread in recent weeks, comes after the district decided to make the tests part of Seattle teachers' evaluations this year. But it follows long-standing complaints by the teachers that the computerized exams take up too much instructional time and force schools to close off computer labs for long stretches to administer the exams.

"We've been raising our voices about this deeply flawed test for a long time," said Jesse Hagopian, who teaches history at Garfield High School, where teachers initiated the boycott by voting this month not to give the exam. But now that the district is using the test for evaluations, he said, "we've drawn our line in the sand."

The spat in Seattle comes as districts nationwide wrestle with how best to use student test scores to rate teachers. In the past three years, more than 25 states have passed laws to link scores to teacher evaluations, because officials think it is a more effective way to gauge performance than traditional reliance on observations by school principals.

But as local districts are trying to implement those policies, they are running into some resistance. New York City has forfeited hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars because union and city officials haven't agreed on a new evaluation system that would judge teachers, in part, on student test scores. The Los Angeles teachers union agreed earlier this month to use test scores in evaluations after a protracted fight with the district, and Chicago teachers staged a seven-day strike this past fall, in part, over efforts to judge them on students' test results.

Jose Banda, superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, defended the use of testing to rate teachers. He said that student-achievement data is only one component of the district's teacher-evaluation system, which relies heavily on principal observations. "For us, it's just an added piece of the puzzle," he said.

Tests have taken on increasing importance in U.S. education since the federal No Child Left Behind became law in 2002. Proponents, including the Obama administration, say assessments are necessary to ensure students are learning and that teachers' effectiveness is properly measured.

Some parents and local officials also have resisted the spread of testing. In Texas and Florida, hundreds of school boards adopted resolutions last year asking state officials to reassess state-testing programs. Parents in Washington state and New York City have kept kids home from school on test day in protest. And school-district officials in Oklahoma complained recently about how test scores are factored into controversial new letter grades assigned to schools.

Mr. Banda emphasized that the Seattle protests have happened at only a handful of the city's 95 schools. Some of the teachers boycotting the test there say they aren't opposed to using student-achievement data in evaluations but are unhappy with the current exam.

The Seattle district requires teachers to give the math and reading Measures of Academic Progress exam, or MAP, to students in first through ninth grade two or three times a year. The exams are "computer adaptive," meaning questions begin at grade level but get tougher or easier based on how well the student does.

District officials say the exam allows teachers to pinpoint each student's knowledge and adjust instruction. Seattle teachers complain the exam isn't linked to district or state learning standards.

The district's new teacher evaluation system uses results from the MAP and state achievement exams to assign teacher ratings. A low rating triggers additional observations from the principal, who could eventually suggest termination.

District officials said teachers can't be fired simply because of a low rating based on student test scores.

Matt Carter, a teacher at Orca K-8 School in Seattle, has joined in the boycott because he thinks the MAP exam wastes his student's time and does not help guide his teaching. "If we are using a valid test and it is measuring what I am teaching, than I'd have no problem with it," he said.

The district has warned teachers they could face 10 days suspension without pay if they don't administer the test.

Pat Hunter, a principal at Maple Elementary in Seattle, said she supports using student-achievement results to guide instruction and as a "small piece" of the overall evaluation.

"It's important to use test results, but it's also important that they not become your oxygen."

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